A Thanksgiving feast to go from the Sweet Home Cafe

Sweet Home Cafe's macaroni and cheese has a big reputation and maybe a Twitter account/Photo by Patricia Leslie


With a name like "Sweet Home Café," you think it's going to be anything but delish?

The last call for takeout orders is Monday, Nov. 25 from the Sweet Home Cafe at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, or come on in and order off the menu and eat at the restaurant on Thanksgiving Day.

 Sweet Home Cafe's Thanksgiving spread /Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Sweet Home Cafe's southern-style green beans with smoked pork/Photo by Patricia Leslie

If anyone wants the delicious taste and home cooked food like Grandma used to make for Thanksgiving, Sweet Home is serving them up.

Forget the lists, the menu prep, and all those pots and pans and more and more and more, and order here. Being that I'm a Southern gal whose tastes have been refined over the years, I can attest to Sweet Home's superiority because I tasted everything at a Thanksgiving preview this week, and it must be the only time in my life when I wished for a bigger belly.  But, I wasn't a loner.  Everyone around me did, too. My new friends. Wished for bigger bellies for themselves, not for me, or, I don't think they did. (Misplaced modifier.) 

 Sweet Home Cafe's candied yams and potato salad/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Sweet Home Cafe's cornbread, ham, and turkey are ready to go/Photo by Patricia Leslie


The Sweet Home is selling a Thanksgiving turkey meal for $190 (plus tax) or a ham meal ($205), each with four sides (please read below), cornbread, and choice of a fresh baked pie (pecan or sweet potato), enough to serve between six and eight. (Ummmm, ummmm, ahem. That sweet potato pie is the best I have ever put in my mouth and I've got enough years to make me Top Judge in this category.)

Sweet Home Cafe's delectable trio of macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and cornbread stuffing/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Sweet Home Cafe's good eatins on display/Photo by Patricia Leslie

That's banana pudding (which may be ordered separately) for the Thanksgiving non-traditionalist, with pecan and sweet potato pie for the traditionalist/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Sweet Home Cafe's chefs, Jerome Grant, left, and Ramin Coles proudly stand behind their products/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

The meals come with choices of four of:

  

*Cider-braised collard greens (made vegan-style without fatback)

*Candied yams with ginger and vanilla

*Homestyle mac and cheese (Sweet Home has a glowing reputation for this)

*Down home cornbread stuffing
 
*Southern-style green beans with smoked pork (To die for!)
 
*Potato salad (the best! It looks pretty good, but it tastes a lot better than it looks.)

The cornbread is memorable, light and fluffy, and melts in your mouth, sending visions of corn stalks waving in the south (?).

The free-range turkey is brined for two days in maple syrup, then cold smoked and rubbed with sage, and it comes with cranberry jam, giblet gravy, a thermometer and "herb mop."

The ham is rubbed with brown sugar, bourbon, herbs, spices and mustard, and served with a preserved peach-mustard sauce.

Pie choices are pecan or sweet potato. (See my recommendation above.)

 Sous chef Ramin Coles said mashed potatoes are not offered since "they don't travel well," but Executive Chef Jerome Grant does (?).

He took a 12-hour break from his State Department duties in London where he's teaching cooking classes, to come home to the Sweet Home and help introduce the cafe's Thanksgiving menu at the preview.

The chefs said the recipes all come from the staff.

Meals may be picked up at the Café from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27, or on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, from 10 a.m. until noon. Call 202-633-6174 or order online https://smithsonian.catertrax.com/.

 
For every 25 meals sold, Sweet Home will donate one meal to Martha's Table which helps children, adults, and families who are in need. Also, the name of anyone who buys a Thanksgiving dish from the menu will be entered in a drawing for a signed Sweet Home cookbook.

 

Thanksgiving is not only a time to eat and share a meal with loved ones, but it's fun to relive old family favorites like the one Chef Grant described when his father made a not-so-great Thanksgiving dinner: "The turkey was super dried out, the gravy still had lumps in it. We still talk about it," he laughed.

This year his family will be eating Korean bar-be-cue "because who wants to clean up?" he asked. "My favorite aunt who cleans up is not coming this year."

Chef Grant's favorite Thanksgiving dish "is definitely stuffing," and he paused before adding: "with gravy.  We do it different each year; sometimes, it's oyster stuffing; sometimes, cornbread." 

Chef Cole said as soon as he opens the restaurant up Thursday morning, he's outa there since he'll be working all weekend.

Thanksgiving preparation begins in August at the Sweet Home Cafe.

For those cooking at home, Chef Coles had a tip: the Reynolds aluminum bag is "an amazing piece of technology," he said. 

"Our food is done with love, it's done with soul," the chefs proclaimed, and to that end, I say "amen,bro" and place my taste buds on ignition. 

What: The Thanksgiving Meal

When: Order by Monday, Nov. 25 and pick up Nov. 27 all day or until noon on Nov. 28.

Where: The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1400 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20560

How much: $190 for a turkey meal or $205 for ham (plus tax) or order a la carte.  See the menu at https://smithsonian.catertrax.com/.

For more information: 202-633-6174

Closest Metro stops:  Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations

patricialesli@gmail.com

Turkey a-go-go at the Indian Museum

A Thanksgiving feast at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

 You can't bear the thought of getting yourself to umpteen million stores to buy the goods for Big Turkey Day?

Don't want to prepare a menu? Cook?

Forget it, forget the lists, the shopping and driving (the traffic!),  unloading, polishing, cleaning, table setting, and deciding who likes what for Thanksgiving Day. (Oh, and then there's clean-up and floral arrangements and ironing and, and ...)

 Chef Freddie J. Bitsoie invites you to the Thanksgiving feast at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

The lad can't wait to get a plate and pile it high with delicacies from Chef Bitsoie's Thanksgiving feast at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

Call in your order to the National Museum of the American Indian which is serving a delicious feast for six to eight for only $190 (plus tax).   

Or, come to the museum on Thanksgiving Day and sit down at the restaurant which for years has enjoyed the best reputation for museum food anywhere in this town.

 A Thanksgiving feast at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Wild rice salad at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

 A Thanksgiving feast at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie


If you consider what you would spend for the Thanksgiving meal, the meal to go is a bargain, plus, it's homemade without that starchy, Styrofoam pre-made taste often found in grocery take-outs.

For every 25 meals purchased, the museum will donate a free meal to Martha's Table whose goal is to enable strong children, families, and communities through education, healthy eating, and family assists.

 The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

 The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

Call in your order for good eatins' or order online by Monday, Nov. 25 to 202-633-7044 or https://smithsonian.catertrax.com. Pick up at the Museum's Mitsitam Cafe on Wednesday, Nov. 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Now, for the menu created by Chef Freddie J. Bitsoie, one of few Native American chefs with a national reputation.

Since I tasted all these delicacies last week, I can speak truthfully about their deliciousness:

Maple-glazed roasted turkey (which comes with a thermometer)

Cornbread

Gravy

Cranberry sauce 

Pumpkin and chocolate bread pudding with baked pumpkin bread, custard, and chocolate chips

and your choice of four of these sides:

Apricot, fig and pear dressing of cornbread, fruits, and spices

Buttery mashed russet potatoes

Agave braised butternut squash

Wild rice salad with carrots, pine nuts, scallions, cranberries, lemon and olive oil

Three Sisters Salad with corn, black beans, squash, parsley, lemon, and olive oil. 


(If your taste buds aren't exercised after reading this, you may need a tongue treadmill which I am sure is available on the Internet. Here's an article at NIH I found.)

Ordering the meal to go will give you time to attend the Blackfeet Nation Tribal Festival this coming Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and hear the talk by Curator Cecile R. Ganteaume on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 2 p.m. about  Pocahontas and "her early impact on European and American thought."  (She was more than just an Indian princess!  Come and learn.)

As if these weren't reasons enough to buy out, it will leave you energy to attend the Native American Heritage and Family Fun Day at the museum on Black Friday, Nov. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

November is Native American Heritage Month and the museum honors the 6.6 million Native American and Alaska Native people living in the U.S. plus millions of other Indigenous people found in the Western Hemisphere.

What:  Thanksgiving at the National Museum of the American Indian

When: 10 a.m.. - 5:30 p.m. , open daily except Christmas Day


Where: Fourth Street and Independence, S.W. Washington, D.C 20560


Admission:  No charge

Closest Metro station: L'Enfant Plaza.  Exit at Maryland Avenue/Smithsonian Museums and, once outside, walk towards the U.S. Capitol.

For more information:  202-633-6644 or 888-618-0572

patricialesli@gmail.com